The Internet loves CA rap-group (and kings of the grotesque) Odd Future Wolfgang Kill Them All. Today, Pitchfork reported via Complex that Earl's softer side, revealed via a profile in The New Yorker, basically doesn't exist.
It's no surprise that the message we're receiving is completely in line with the general demeanor about OFWKTA. Earl's pissed that the New Yorker went for a deeper angle on his imprisonment and he came out supporting his Mom (or so we are led to think). His music, vile as all hell, yet mystifyingly potent, forced him into his correctional school and he's being held there against his will, no matter what some hoity-toity New Yorker-types want you to believe (allegedly). We get it. It would Earl, or whoever is claiming to bring his words forward via Facebook, is making sure that his views are aligned with the rest of OFWKTA. He's angry he's shut away from joining the fray in his group's recent boom of popularity, and the rest of the group continues to appear furious...with everyone.
It doesn't take much to think back to Eminem's heyday and start to draw similarities between his fight with media critics and outspoken (and offended) interest groups and the current buzz around these kids from SoCal. I'd venture a guess that the critics and fans of OFWKTA haven't changed a lick in personality (or at least musical tastes) since The Slim Shady LP. Rather, it's the music industry ground that's changed, and we all get to add our two cents every day on the Internet now via blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and every other piece of social media that will let someone spell out Odd Future.
Despite enjoying (if you can say that about this music) OFWKTA a heckuva lot, I'm starting to sense that the public just loves to argue about really controversial rap music, with most of us not even clear on what's happening specifically on the tracks we're fighting over. There's a vicious creativity in the work of Earl, Tyler, and their peers, but then again, Mr. Mathers pioneered that road over a decade ago. Perhaps Odd Future are just the current kings, filling a void that the now-sober, older, and disappointingly-wiser Eminem cannot possibly occupy any longer.
None of this goes to discredit Earl at all. The kid's got talent (as anybody who cares to listen to EARL would recognize). What's at stake here is longevity. How long can a single act or group ride a wave of vulgarity and shock-value music? There's is absolutely no doubt that a market for the grotesque and moral-destroying artists will always exist. But as the Internet provides a loud ALL CAPITALS voice for more and more people, our attention spans get shorter, and our tolerance for violence and obscenity gets stronger and stronger. The challenge becomes creating something that pushes the envelope even further, in a way that no one has before. When it comes to Earl and Odd Future, even though they've demonstrated a clear ability to rap well, the formula's a bit more basic. Despite incredible delivery, their music is liken to a narcotic, and the brain is just going to want more angry-rap at a higher potency.
Perhaps the real question here is: how viable a form of art is shock-value-based rap? Sure, it's imaginative and entertaining, but when the goal is nothing more than to create easily-detestable -and thus, lovable- personalities who continually offer up the same sort of disgusting lyrics, can any one act last that long in an industry that has to deal with patrons who can change a song in less than a keystroke? If you ask me, the more potent the stuff gets, the more we'll need new acts to fill the void with bigger and grandiose acts of mannerless art. But hey, who am I to judge? FREE EARL!
"Earl"- Earl Sweatshirt
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